Sainte-Maures have been made for over 1,000 years and the cheeses made in the Touraine region (known as Sainte-Maure de Touraine) are particularly well known and were granted AOC status in 1990. Touraine was broken up across different communes when French government departments were reorganized and, as a result, the geographical area of the appellation includes the department of Indre-et-Loire and the neighboring cantons of Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Vienne.